Jones County Administrator Mike Underwood (l) speaks to department heads at a Aug. 5 budget meeting to inform them of the county’s financial situation entering into the new fiscal year, which begins Sept. 1.

How many ways can it be said that Jones County’s expenses are greater than its anticipated revenues? The Board of Commissioners have spent hours in numerous meetings over the past few weeks, and it appears they too want to make sure they have covered them all.

There is no doubt board members are facing tough decisions as they work to balance this year’s budget, as are government officials across the state.

Under the law a county must have a balanced budget, and when the task began this year, the figures on the income side were about $2 million lower than expenditures.

Jones County Administrator Mike Underwood laid out the problem via a PowerPoint presentation at a mandatory meeting of department heads Aug. 5.

His first statement to the group was, “I don’t have all the answers.”

Underwood stated that the county’s tax digest has been in decline for the last four years. The value of the gross digest dropped from $760,795,713 in 2010 to $701,926,586 in 2013. That’s a whopping $59,000,000 less in property values, which equates to $600,000 in lost tax dollars.